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PUBLICATIONS 



OF THE 



SCOTTSVILLE LITERARY SOCIETY, 



No. 7. 



DID BETSEY ROSS DESIGN 



THE FLAG OF THE 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA? 



By Franklin Hanford. 



SCOTTSVILLE, IM. Y. 



ISAAC VAN HOOSER, PRINTER. 



1917. 



PUBLICATIONS 



OF THE 



SCOTTSVILLE LITERARY SOCIETY, 
No. 7. 

DID BETSEY ROSS DESIGN 

THE FLAG OF THE 

UNITED STATES OP AMERICA? 

By Franklin Hanford. 

H 
SCOTTSVILLE, N. Y. 

Isaac Van hooser. Printer. 

1917. 









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DID BETSY ROSS DESIGN 
THE FLAG OF THE 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA? 

By Franklin Hanford. 

A paper read before the Scottsville Literary 
Society, January 22, 1917. 



On Saturday, the fourteenth of June, 1777, the 
Continental Congress, then in session in Philadel- 
phia, adopted a resolution which reads as follows: 
" Resolved, that the flag of the thirteen United 
States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; 
that the Union be thirteen stars, white in a blue 
field, representing a new constellation." 

' The Journal of Congress is silent as to the 
name of the member or committee that introduced 
this resolution and neither is there any record of 
the discussions that may have preceded the adopt- 
ion of our national emblem." " It is a matter of 



great regret that no record of the circumstances 
attending the birth of the Stars and Stripes has 
ever been found," for we should like to know who 
designed our present flag, and also, though a mat- 
ter of less interest, who made, that is manufactur- 
ed, the first one. 

Some years ago I happened to see upon the wall 
at Mrs. Emma H. Miller's house in Scottsville, a 
very attractive picture in colors. This picture 

represented General Washington seated on the 
left and Robert Morris and the Hon. George Ross 
standing near him, while, seated on the right, was 
Betsey Ross with a completed flag of thirteen 
stripes, and thirteen stars in a blue field, in her 
lap. " C. H. Weisberger, Copyright 1903," was in- 
scribed near the bottom of the picture. Under- 
neath it was this legend; " Birth of our nation's 
flag. The first American flag accepted by Congress 
and adopted by resolution of Congress June 14, 
1777, as the national standard, was made by Betsey 
Ross, in 1776 at 239 Arch Street, Philadelphia, in 
the room represented in this picture. The Com- 
mittee, Robert Morris and Hon. George Ross, ac- 
companied by General George Washington, called 
upon this celebrated woman and together with 



her suggestions, produced our beautiful emblem 
of liberty." 

The legend under this picture led me to make 
some inquiries as to Betsey Ross. Who was she ? 
And did she assist in designing and did she make 
the first flag or ensign of the United States of 
America? If not Betsey Ross, who did design 
and make it ? Endeavoring to answer these 

questions, I have consulted some thirteen works 
relating wholly or in part to the flag of the United 
States. A list of them is appended to this paper. 

Betsey or Elizabeth Griscom was the fifth 
daughter of Samuel and Rebecca ( James ) Griscom 
and was born January 1 , 1752 . She was married 
when quite young to John Ross, son of the Rever- 
end Aeneas Ross, an Episcopal clergyman of New- 
castle, Delaware, whose brother, the Hon. George 
Ross, became one of the signers of the Declaration 
of Independence. George Ross was interested in 
the furnishing of cannon-balls, with perhaps other 
military stores for the Colonial defence, and it 
was while on guard at night over these, with other 
young men, that the nephew, John Ross, Betsey's 
first husband, received an injury from the effects 



of which he died in January, 1776. 

It was during her widowhood that Betsey Ross 
is said to have made the first Stars and Stripes. 
For a second husband she married a sea-captain, 
John or Joseph Ashburne, who died in Mill Prison, 
England, in 1782. The following year, she married 
Ashburne's prison-mate, John Claypoole, who died 
in 1817. 

Betsey Ross died in her daughter's home in 
Philadelphia January 30, 1836, aged eighty-four. 
She was buried in the Cemetery of the Society of 
Free Quakers on South Fifth Street, from which 
place her remains were transferred in 1857 to 
Mount Moriah Cemetery. Four of her daughters 
grew up and married. Betsey Ross' first husband 
was an upholsterer. She continued his business 
and for fifty years was an expert needlewoman, 
lace-maker and flag-maker. After her death, Mrs. 
Clarissa Wilson, one of her daughters, succeeded 
to the business and continued to make flags for 
the arsenals and navy-yards and for the mercantile 
marine for many years. But being conscientious 
on the subject of war, Mrs. Wilson gave up the 
Government business but continued to make flags 



for the merchant marine until 1857. 

The earliest " History of the National Flag," of 
which I have knowledge, was written by Captain 
Schuyler Hamilton, U. S. Army, and published at 
Philadelphia in 1853, sixty-four years ago. Captain 
Hamilton makes no mention of Betsey Ross, and 
does not give to any one person or group of per- 
sons the honor of designing our flag. 

The next " History of Our Flag " was written 
by Ferdinand L. Sarmiento and published in 1864, 
during the Civil War, at Philadelphia. Sarmiento, 
like Captain Hamilton , does not mention Betsey 
Ross and does not credit the origin of our flag to 
any one person or to any committee , or group of 
persons , but considers honor due to many indi- 
viduals who assisted, more or less, in the 
development of our flag. 

So far as I can learn , no mention of Mrs. Ross 
occurs in any history of our country or in any of 
the many biographies of Washington , prior to 
1870, ninety-three years after the flag was adopted. 
In that year, however, " Mr. Wm. J. Canby of 
Philadelphia , read before the Historical Society 
of Pennsylvania , a paper on the history of the 



American flag , in which he stated that his mater- 
nal grandmother , Mrs. John Ross , was the first 
maker and partial designer of the Stars and 
Stripes . n Mr. Canby said that Mrs. Ross receiv- 
ed a call in June, 1776, from General Washington, 
Col. George Ross, and Robert Morris, who told 
her they were a Committee of Congress and 
wanted her to make a flag from a rough drawing 
they had , which drawing , upon her suggestion , 
was redrawn by Washington in pencil . This was 
prior to the Declaration of Independence . Mr. 
Canby claimed that he had heard his grandmother 
tell the story when he was a boy eleven years old , 
and that three of Mrs. Ross' daughters then living 
in 1870 and a niece , aged ninety-five , confirmed 
his statements . 

In the picture I have referred to , Mrs. Ross is 
represented as having a completed Stars and 
Stripes in her lap , although , at the time of the 
visit of the Committee to her , according to Mr. 
Canby 's statement, the flag had not even been 
designed or manufactured. 

The best and most complete ''History of the 



Flag of the U. S. of America " was written by Rear 
Admiral George H. Preble, U. S. Navy . The first 
edition was published in 1872 and the second , re- 
vised , edition , in 1880. Rear- Admiral Preble 
gives Mr Canby's story about Mrs. Ross in full , 
and he considers it probable that Mrs. Ross did 
manufacture or have manufactured at different 
times flags of the United States of various designs. 
His conclusion , however , is that " it will probably 
never be known who designed our union of stars , 
the records of Congress being silent on the subject 
and there being no mention or suggestion of it in 
any of the voluminous correspondence or diaries 
of the time , public or private , which have ever 
been published ." 

In 1878 , a ridiculous pamphlet was published , 
entitled " The History of the First United States 
Flag and the Patriotism of Betsey Ross , the Im- 
mortal Heroine that Originated the First Flag of 
the Union . Dedicated to the Ladies of the United 
States by Col. J. Franklin Reigart '." This was 
published at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania . 

In Reigart 's book , the claim is made that Mrs. 
Ross " originated " our flag . Mr. Canby , Mrs. 



10 



Ross' grandson, had claimed only that she 
manufactured it and that she suggested some 
changes in the sketch shown her by the committee. 
In Reigart's book there is a pretended portrait of 
Betsey Ross making the first flag . This was 

really the portrait of a Quaker lady of Lancaster 
and was taken from a photograph . Mr Canby 
repudiated Reigart's book and said he did not 
correctly present his grandmother or her claim . 

In 1876 Mr. J. C. Julius Langbein wrote a small 
history of our flag and he accepts Mr. Canby 's 
account of Mrs. Ross making the first flag and 
suggesting some change in the original design . 

Learning that a book entitled " Betsey Ross " 
had been published in 1901 , I procured a copy 
thinking it biographical or historical but it proved 
to be a romance , pure and simple , woven about 
Mrs. Ross who is represented as the heroine of 
her day and the principal designer of the flag . 

Since 1891 , several small works on the flag 
have been published , written by members of the 
Daughters of the American Revolution and dedi- 
cated to that organization . In those works great 
honor is given Mrs. Ross , indeed , the members 



11 



of the D. A. R. as a whole, seem to have accepted 
Mr. Canby's story as beyond dispute . 

In 1908 , Mr. John H. Fow published at Phila- 
delphia a book of fifty-four pages entitled " The 
True Story of the American Flag ." Mr. Fow 

devotes considerable space to the claims made for 
Mrs. Ross and considers them without any docu- 
mentary or record proof . He says , " If Mrs. 
Ross made a flag in an Arch Street house as 
claimed , it was made after a design that had been 
conceived and born somewhere else, and her 
contribution was no more than the labor that is 
given by any girl or woman in a flag manufactory. 
Even according to the paper which was read ( by 
Mr. Canby ) before the ( Historical ) Society in 1870, 
it is admitted that a design made by someone else 
was taken to her but that she made some changes 
in it . Now ," says Mr. Fow , " that is all 
there is in the Betsey Ross claim . Yet the 
growing youths of the nation are being misled 
and taught an historical untruth ." Mr. Fow also 
says that the Canby claim " is practically charging 
Washington and the rest of the Committee with 
seeking to establish and set up in June , 1776 , a 



12 



national ensign before we had declared ourselves a 
free people on July 4, of the same year , and with- 
out any delegated authority to do so , the record 
of Congress being silent on the subject ." 

I will not quote further from Mr. Fow's book, 
as to do so would unduly lengthen this paper , but 
the book itself can be found in the Scottsville 
Free Library . 

I have lately found in the " Manual of Patriotism 
for Use in the Public Schools of the State of New 
York , Edition of 1904 , Compiled , Arranged and 
Edited under direction of Charles R. Skinner , 
State Superintendent of Public Instruction " the 
following in relation to the origin of our flag , " A 
Committee of Congress accompanied by Washing- 
ton sought out the home and services of Mrs. 
Elizabeth Ross of Philadelphia - better known as 
Betsey Ross - to aid them in the flag-making . 
Her skillful hands and willing heart soon worked 
out a plan and gave to this country that red , 
white and blue banner which is the admiration of 
all nations and the unfailing joy of every true 
American ." All of which is a very fine example 
of what may be called " patriotic gush ." 



13 



Here you observe that Mr. Skinner gives Mrs. 
Ross all the credit for working out and giving us 
the flag . As it seemed to me that that sort of 
history and patriotism is all wrong and as there 
is , I believe , no warrant for that statement , I 
wrote on September 16, 1916, to the State Super- 
intendent of Public Instruction at Albany , and 
asked to be furnished with the authority upon 
which that statement was based . A reply came 
very promptly signed " Wilmer L. Hall , Sub-li- 
brarian in history ," to whom my letter had been 
referred for reply . Mr. Hall says , " The state- 
ment you quote may be based upon one or more 
of the several histories of the American Flag . 
See for example ; Peleg D. Harrison , The Stars 
and Stripes , 5th edition , 1914., and C. W. Stew- 
art, The Stars and Stripes , 1915. These accounts 
do not assert that Betsey Ross originated the 
American flag but allow her the credit of making 
the first one . It is said that Congress appointed 
a Committee consisting of General Washington , 
Col. George Ross and Robert Morris , who called 
upon Mrs. Ross and submitted to her a rough 
drawing of the flag . As the American flag is a 
growth rather than a creation , its exact origin is 



14 



not determined ; nor is the date of the manu- 
facture of the first one by Mrs. Ross and the 
date of its first use matters of exact knowledge ." 

Upon examining the two works referred to by 
Mr. Hall , I find that Mr. Harrison says that 
" the credit of making the first flag combining the 
Stars and Stripes is generally given to Mrs. 
Betsey Ross, and the story of its making is 
somewhat familiar to all . " Then Mr. Harrison 
goes on to give Mr. Canby's account of what his 
grandmother told him . 

Mr. Stewart in his book says, "Tradition 
tells us that Mrs. Elizabeth Ross, known as 
Betsey Ross , of Philadelphia , constructed the 
first Stars and Stripes flag . Though we have no 
official record of the making of this first United 
States flag , the accounts given by Betsey Ross' 
relatives are generally accepted ." 

I will here call attention to the use by Mr. Hall, 
Mr. Harrison , Mr, Stewart , and other writers of 
such expressions as " It is said ," " Tradition tells 
us ," " It is believed ," " Credit is generally given ," 
and so forth and so forth . These expressions 



15 



are to history what the expression " they say " in 
common gossip or talk is to the truth , and are 
worth just as much . The fact that a thing is 

generally believed does not make it true. 

Sometime after the receipt of the foregoing let- 
ter from Mr. Hall , I wrote him suggesting that 
the account given on page 5 of the " Manual of 
Patriotism " previously quoted , be corrected to 
agree with the facts . 

It will be noted from the above correspondence 
that the State Department of Public Instruction 
does not now assert, as it did in 1904, that 
Betsey Ross originated the design of the flag 
for the United States . 







What became of the flag that Betsey Ross is 
said to have made in June , 1776 ? In all the 

engagements that took place between the Ameri- 
can and British troops from June , 1776, to August, 
1777, there is no record in existence, public or 
private , that the flag claimed to have been design- 
ed by Mrs. Ross in June , 1776 , was carried . 

The first time that the Stars and Stripes was 



16 



carried by American troops was at the battle of 
the Brandywine , September , 1777 . 

The Annals of the American Congress do not 
say that any Committee was appointed to design 
the flag . Washington made no note of a visit to 
Mrs. Ross' house, although he was a voluminous 
letter-writer and kept most detailed diaries , and 
his writings do not contain a word that suggests 
when the first United States flag was made or 
designed . Neither do any of the distinguished 
historians of the Revolutionary period give us 
light on this question . Newspapers of Phila- 

delphia , issued at that time , did not chronicle 
any portion of the story as told by Mr. Canby 
ninety-three years after the flag was adopted by 
Congress. Mrs. Ross did make State colors for 
vessels and batteries prior to June 14, 1777, but it 
was not until after the Stars and Stripes were 
ordained that she became a Government flag- 
maker . 

The Betsey Ross legend has grown up since 
1870 entirely from her grandson's statement as to 
what he and other descendants had heard her 



17 



say . This legend is now generally believed and 
taught in our schools as history . J 

The people of our country are very apt at setting 
up idols of one kind or another and at manufac- 
turing heros and heroines . That Betsey Ross 
was a good woman , and an industrious and com- 
petent seamstress is entirely probable . That she 
was brave , we may believe , - she married three 
husbands ! ! At all events , we have now Betsey 
Ross Chapters, Betsey Ross Auxiliaries, and 
Betsey Ross this , that , and the other . And her 
former home at 239 Arch Street in Philadelphia 
has been bought and is preserved by the " Ameri- 
can Flag House and Betsey Ross Memorial Asso- 
ciation ." And a large sign across the front reads , 
" Birthplace of Old Glory ." 

Now with your permission , I will give my own 
conclusions on the subject . ( The evidence that 
General Washington , Robert Morris and Colonel 
George Ross called upon Mrs. Ross in June, 1776, 
and asked her to make a flag from a sketch which 
they showed her , that Mrs. Ross suggested alter- 
ations in the design, which the Committee 



V^ 



18 



accepted , and that she made a flag from the modi- 
fied design which flag was a year later adopted by 
Congress as our national ensign, is entirely 
heresay evidence . It is based solely on state- 
ments by Betsey Ross' descendants as to what 
they heard her say . This evidence , I think , 
would not be accepted in a court of law , and 
therefore it is not proved that Mrs. Ross either 
designed or manufactured our first flag, j 

I read a portion of this paper on June 14, 
1912 , before the Caledonia chapter of the D. A. R. 
and asked them this question , Would you admit 
to membership in your society a person whose 
sole claim to membership was based on what she 
had heard her grandmother say ? The unanimous 
reply was that they could not admit such a 
claimant . 

Possibly there may be some better evidence than 
I have been able to find to substantiate the claims 
made for Betsey Ross ; but until such evidence is 
produced , then the people of our country should 
be taught the facts of the case and not a legend 
as a fact . 



19 



The answer , then , to the question propounded 
at the beginning of this paper is , that Betsey 
Ross did not design the flag of the United States 
of America . 




20 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

Did Betsey Ross Design the Flag of the 
United States of America ? 



Bowson , Elizabeth M. ( Mrs. Henry S. ) 

Our Flag, Its History and What It 

Stands For 1908 

Champion , Sarah E. 

Our Flag , Its History and Changes from 

1607 to 1910 1910 

Fow , John H. 

The True Story of the American Flag. 1908 

Hamilton, Schuyler 

History of the National Flag of the 

United States of America 1852 

Hamilton, Schuyler 

Our National Flag* TJj^ Stars and Stripes 1877 

Lot- 19 



21 



Harrison , Pcleg D. 

The Stars and Stripes 1914 

Hotchkiss, Chaunccy C. 

Betsey Ross A Romance of the Flag 1901 

Langbein , J. C. Julius 

The American Flag Its Origin and History 1876 

Preble , George Henry Rear- Admiral , 
U. S. Navy 

History of the Flag of the United States 

of America 1st edition 1872 

2nd edition 1880 

Prescott , B . F . 

The Stars and Stripes 1876 

Sarmiento , Ferdinand L . 

The History of Our Flag 1864 

Smith, Col. Nicholas 

Our Nation's Flag 2nd edition 1908 

Stewart, Charles W. 

The Stars and Stripes 1915 



19 1917 



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